Station indicator



June 5, 1923. 1,457,378

5. MAJKA ET AL STATION INDICATOR 4 Filed April 6, 1922 s Sheets-Sheet 1 S. MAJKA ET AL STATION INDICATOR Filed April 6, 1922 3 Shee ts-Sheet 2 June 5, 1923.

i. .P l l I N 'N L 35 w at? g Patented June 5, 1923.

umr Ego sTEvE'MAJK'A ANDPETER BOEOWSKY, or DOVER, new HAM'I' sHi t'E,

Application filed April 6;-

To aZlwhmfiifmag/cmcerfl:

Be it known that we, STEVE MAJKA and PETER BoRowsKY, citizens of Poland, residing at- Dover, in the county of Strafi'ord and State of New Hampshire,- have invented cer-' tain new and useful Improvements in Sta tion Indicators, of which the following is a specification;

This" invention relates-to street car annun-' ciators' and has as its principal object, the provision of means for automatically a-n-' nouncing street intersections or stations as they are being approached.

Another purposeis to rovidea device which may be timed to coincide with the distances travelled sothat accurate registry of the stations next a'djacent'is obtained.

A further aim isto provide audible signalling means by which attention maybe attracted to the annunciator with each change of Sign.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a device directly actuated by the car wheel, insuring proper synchronism be tweenlthe various elements. v

These and other like objects are attained by the novel construction and combination of parts" hereafter described and shown in the accompanyingdrawings, forming a material part of this disclosure, and in which Figure 1 is a perspective View of an embodiment of the annunciator, illustrating the method of connecting the same with the car wheel. H v I Figure 2 is a front view of the same showing the cover removed.

F igur'ef3 is a vertical sectional View taken online 3-3 of Figure 2. a

Figure 4 is a similar sectional view taken on line l4 of Figure 2.'

Figure 5 is anotherlike sectional taken on line 55 of Fig-ure 2.

Referring to the drawings, the. device consists of a housing 10 provided intermediate its ends with a partition wall 11 whichidivides the housing: into two separate com,- partments 12 and 13. -Theocompartment 12 encloses the web driving and'timing mechanism, and the compartment 13 encloses the web and its respective'winding reels.

Mounted horizontallywithin the compartment 12 is the main driving shaft 14 having mounted near the end adjacent the partition Wall 11 a longitudinally slidable sleeve 15 view 1922. Serial No: 550 054.

which is provided a slot.

16 for the reception ofa pin 17,*fi xedinthe" shaft 1 1 so "as to cause the sleeve topositiv'ely revolve" upon movement? of the shaft.

As shown in Figure 2 thissleevep'rojects:

through the partition wall into the. compare ment 13 and is'provi'dedat its" end with aipinion 18; adapted to mesh with the pinions 19'and =20 by means of which the winding; l

and unwinding reels 21 are operated;

These reels are adapted to receivethewebs 22' and 23 which pass over guide membersfl" arranged adjacent the upper and lower cor-' nets of the housing to hold webs inproper position with relation to V the transparent doors-'25 of the housing.

,1 It Will thus be'seen thatastheshaftlt is rotated in one directiomone of'th'e wheels will be driven in a windingdirection andth other of said wheels in an unwindingdiree' tion' so" that the we bswill travel across-the faces 'oftheir respective doors to Show the approachof a station,-

In order that the webs may be advanced in' proper synchronism, there is provided-a toothed collar 265'secured to the shaffilt and arranged to be intermittently operated metal strip 27. Opposite endso'f this strip,

are secured to the" cores of" the reels ;.28,'-' mounted to rotate" with the shafts 29 and These shafts are connectedby a chain 31 en aging sprockets 32 carried by the shafts so that uponlrot'a tion of one of the shafts the gear 81 which meshes with a W mounted 'on and positively driven by means ofa shaft the outerendg'o'f which pea vided' with a bevel gear 34 ii hihg' pinion 35 which in turn is" secured with;

upper end of a shaft 36; I U V Th'is'shaft 36 is provided at it'slo'w'er' end with a bevel gear 37 meshingwith a'pi'nioii 38; driven by the can ax le 39. It will thus be seen that as" the car" travels, the'sliaft 36 will, through its ass'ociatedmechanisn'i, drive the shaft 33 thus rotating the worm wheel 81 and when the clutch member 40 is inactive position the shafts 29land SOwill be rotated I so as to impart motion to the "reels 28 and cause thetape 2? to travel through the guide members 41 and over the toothed collar 26 .In Order that the shaft14'maybeinter} inittently operated, the tape 27 isprovided at spaced intervals, with apertures 83, adapted to engage the teeth of the collar 26 and thereby partially rotate the shaft 14.

It will be obvious that the position of the apertures in the tape 27 must be such that the teeth will engage the walls thereof at the proper time to announce the approach of a station and therefore they cannot be spaced at regular intervals where stations are at varying distances.

In order to attract attention of the device when a station is being approached, there is provided a ratchet wheel 42 which co-operates with a rocking dog 43, secured to the shaft 44 carrying a bell-hammer 45 adapted to strike the bell 46 as the shaft 14 is rotated and thereby provides an audible signalling means for the device.

It is to be understood that if so desired, a contact element may be associated with the toothed wheel 42 in such a manner as to complete an electric circuit through an illuminating element located in such a position behind the webs 22 and 23 as to render the characters carried by said webs readily discernible.

Mounted on guide members 47 within the web containing compartment 13 are vertically sliding doors 48 which are adapted to be opened and closed automatically. One of these doors is provided with a projection 49 to which a flexible member 50 is secured and this flexible member passes upwardly and over pulleys 51 and thence downwardly and over a pulley 52 and has one end attached to an arm 53, secured to the door 48 on the opposite side of the compartment.

The arm 53 is provided with an internally threaded bore for the reception of a vertically extending threaded shaft 54, near the lower end of which is a bevelled pinion 55. This pinion 55 meshes with a bevelled gear 56 mounted at the end of the shaft 33 as illustrated in Figure 2. It will thus be seen that the doors will be automatically opened or closed as the train travels.

Realizing the desirability for hand adjustment for webs and their associated elements there is provided a shaft 57, and arranged to slide longitudinally and mounted on said shaft, intermediate its ends, is a pinion 58 which. when the hand controlling means is in operation, meshes with a gear 59 mounted on one end of the shaft 29. The movements of the shaft 57 are controlled by a lever 60 pivoted adjacent its lower end, as at 61.

This lever is provided, intermediate its ends with an arm 62 forked to engage in an annular groove 63 formed in the sleeve 15. It will thus be seen that when the lever 60 is moved to the right, the pinion 18 will be moved out of mesh with the gear 19 thereby disengaging the automatic mamas controlling means and throwing the hand operated control means into operative position.

The hand operated control means above referred to comprises a crank shaft 64, provided adjacent its inner end with abevelle-d gear 65 in turn meshing with a pinion 66 which drives a sprocket over which the chain 67 runs. This chain also runs over a sprocket 68 which is keyed to the shaft 57 and it will thus be seen that upon turning the hand crank 69, driven.

The movements of the lever 60 are con trolled by means of a shaft 70 the inner the shaft 57' will be end of which is provided with a pin 71 for engagement in a slot 72 formed in the lower end of the lever. As illustrated in Figure 4, the inner end of the shaft 70 is downturned as at 73, and its outer end is provided with a handle member 74 by means of which the operator may control the movements of the device.

It is quite obvious also that a hand setting of the device may be obtained by providing the shaft 33 with an extension 75 which in turn may be provided with a hand crank 76 and in this way, by disconnecting the shaft 36, the entire mechanism may be reset.

While in the foregoing there has been shown and described the preferred embodiment of this invention, it is to be underestood that minor changes in the details of construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the scope of this invention as defined in the appended claim.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A station indicator comprising a compartmented casing, a pair of winding rolls, "a web wound thereon, means for distending said web, all of said elements being in one compartment, a drive shaft actuated by the wheels of the vehicle carrying the indicator, means for disengaging the connections there between, means for manually rotating said shaft when disconnected, a second shaft positively driven from the first shaft, an intermediate shaft, a toothed collar fixed thereon, a perforate band, drums fixed on the first and second shafts on which said band is wound, said band engaging the toothed collar to rotate the intermediate shaft, and a gear train driven by said intermediate shaft, communicating rotary motion to said winding rolls.

STEVE MAJKA.

Witness GEORGE E. HOLMES.

PETER BOROWSKY.' 

